Race Matters

This special edition of Ethical Space addresses the lack of ethnic diversity in the British media. With a focus on newspapers, the book identifies the reasons for a shortage of minority ethnic groups in mainstream journalism and newsroom management. It also considers the effects of this shortage on media representations of minority groups. The project arose from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded seminar series on Widening Ethnic Diversity in Journalism. The seminars were unique in assembling diverse perspectives and fostering interactions across the social, industrial, academic and educational landscape. The contributors to this special double edition reflect this diversity by representing key dimensions of the subject: the mainstream and minority ethnic media industry, journalism education and academic research. While focusing mainly on the British context, the volume also contains a major section on international perspectives and outcomes which echo several issues about workforce diversity identified in the UK news industry. The aims of this book are to: • assess industry-led strategies to address under-recruitment of Black and ethnic minority (BEM) journalists; • to facilitate dialogue between educators, employers and BEM representatives about increasing BEM recruitment; • advance scholarship about under-representation of BEM groups; • identify policies and schemes to attract BEM recruitment into key roles in the media; and • inform the development of policy and practice in government, media industries and journalism education and training to increase the representation of Black and ethnic minority communities in mainstream newsrooms and raise their participation and profile in civil society. Guest editors: David Baines leads the Journalism section of the Media and Cultural Studies group at Newcastle University while Deborah Chambers is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Newcastle University